- A Chaplain Dreadnought, also known as the Chaplain Venerable Dreadnought, is a variant of the Castraferrum Dreadnought combat walker used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. Dreadnoughts are cybernetic combat walkers that house the mortal remains of a fallen Space Marine hero so that he may continue fighting for the Emperor of Mankind and his Chapter even after his body has been fatally.
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Some gameplay footage of the new 10 dollar DLC for Space Marine. A Chaos Dreadnought is a Dreadnought in the service of the Chaos Space Marines. Under the influence of Chaos, many Chaos Dreadnoughts have degenerated into insane monsters, known as Helbrutes. 2b However exemplars of ancient Dreadnought patterns still exist, having become dark reflections of their imperial counterparts.
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Space Marines, also known as the Adeptus Astartes, are superhuman warrior-monks who fight for the Imperium of Man. They wear mechanised suits of armour and have modified genomes that grant them superhuman strength and endurance. Some Space Marines have defected from the Imperium and worship the Chaos Gods, and are thus known as Chaos Space Marines.
Warhammer 40,000 is a miniature wargame, and Space Marines are one of the many playable factions available to the player. They are the most well-known and popular army, always featuring in the artwork and starter set of each edition of Warhammer 40,000 and other spin-off games such as Space Hulk and Epic (excluding the 2nd edition Titan Legions). Likewise, they are the most popular protagonists in spin-off fiction such as novels and video games.
Publication history[edit]
Space Marines were first introduced in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1987) by Rick Priestley, which was the first edition of the tabletop game.
The book Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned (Rick Priestly and Bryan Ansell, 1990) was the first book from Games Workshop to give a backstory for the Space Marines. It introduced the original 20 Space Marine Legions as well as their 'Primarchs'. It also first described the Horus Heresy, the civil war of the 30th millennium in which nine of the Legions converted to the worship of the four main Chaos Gods.
Two of the original 20 Legions and their respective Primarchs are not named and are described as 'redacted' from the records of the Imperium. Rick Priestley explained that this was to illustrate the Imperium's practice of erasing embarrassing or incriminating events and figures from Imperial records (damnatio memoriae).
To me the background to 40K was always intended to be ironic. [...] The fact that the Space Marines were lauded as heroes within Games Workshop always amused me, because they’re brutal, but they’re also completely self-deceiving. The whole idea of the Emperor is that you don’t know whether he’s alive or dead. The whole Imperium might be running on superstition. There’s no guarantee that the Emperor is anything other than a corpse with a residual mental ability to direct spacecraft. It’s got some parallels with religious beliefs and principles, and I think a lot of that got missed and overwritten.
Tabletop games[edit]
Miniature design[edit]
Bob Naismith created the initial design for the Space Marines, which was modified by Jes Goodwin and Aly Morrison when the design was translated to models. The original Space Marines in Power Armor had helmets with prominent conical snouts, which were based on single-filter gas masks used by soldiers in World War 1; and not medieval hounskull helmets as some may believe. This original design is popularly remembered as the 'beaky' design, and in the lore it is known as 'Mark VI Corvus'. Jes Goodwin designed the second edition (1993) 'Mark VII Aquila' design, where the helmet's beak was replaced by a flat grill, and the chestplate features a winged skull. With the eighth edition (2017), Games Workshop introduced the Primaris design. Primaris Space Marine models are slightly taller than previous designs.
Warhammer 40,000[edit]
Space Marines are a playable army in the miniature wargame Warhammer 40,000.[2] As far as non-hero infantry go, Space Marines are rather powerful and have a high point cost, so Space Marine armies tend to be small. This means that a player can assemble a functional army for relatively little money and effort. In terms of playing style, they are a versatile army that neither excels nor fails at any particular tactic, though certain Chapters do have variant rules. Individual units are typically not strongly specialised and can roughly substitute in other roles, meaning most mistakes and setbacks are easy to compensate for. Their tough armour and generally unspecialised weaponry means that they do not have to be manoeuvred as carefully as units of other armies (such as the powerful but frail Eldar). These qualities make them ideal for beginners, and may help them succeed more often in their early gameplay stages.[3]
Fictional characteristics[edit]
Space Marines vary wildly by their Chapter, which is a military organizational unit of 1,000 Battle Brothers. Each chapter has its own view on religion, politics, and warfare, as well as its own culture and customs—from White Scars' hit and run strikes to Imperial Fist's attritional warfare. Each Chapter's customs and lifestyle can range from strict, monastic disciplines reminiscent of real history, to vikingesque revelry and warrior culture, to exclusive inner circles and whispered secrets. This extends to their religion, with each chapter worshiping the Emperor of Mankind with their own unique customs. These, like other Astartes customs, can be extreme, from seeing the Emperor as the greatest of men rather than a god, to ritual cannibalism in his name.
Each Marine has been genetically and physically enhanced with organ implants and other non-mechanical augmentations, collectively referred to as 'gene-seed' that ultimately derive from the Emperor's own flesh. This is so he can physically don a mechanised suit of armour, a fully powered and ceramite-crafted shell known commonly as Power Armour, which in turn will give the Marine protection and capabilities far beyond that of a normal man. The common Space Marine equipped with Power Armour stands 8 feet (2.4 m) and wields the finest small-arms weaponry available to the Imperium (with the exception of the Adeptus Custodes, The Emperor's personal bodyguards.)
Equipment[edit]
The equipment of the Adeptus Astartes encompasses a very wide variety of machines, weapons, and armour, but the two universal pieces of Astartes equipment are the Boltgun (also known as a 'Bolter') and a set of Power Armour.
A Bolter is a powerful, rapid-fire weapon that fires explosive kinetic projectiles towards its target, referred to as Bolts, and serves as the primary weapon of the Adeptus Astartes as most Space Marines carries a Bolter or other Bolt weapon as a primary armament. Space Marines also make frequent use of Directed-energy weapons, Chain Weapons, Flamethrowers, and in more uncommon situations gravity-altering weapons known as grav-guns designed to crush enemies beneath their own weight by manipulating the mass of the target, the larger or heavier the target the more damage it deals.
A Space Marine's protection is provided by their Armour, known as Power Armour. Power Armour is a fully enclosed suit of powered armour that is built Primarily from Ceramite. Ceramite is a durable, energy absorbent and heat dissipating material making the armour exceptionally protective against low-powered or even mid-powered energy based weapons designed to target infantry (such as lasguns, multi-lasers etc.) as well as incendiary weapons such as flamethrowers. To put it in a modern perspective, a Space Marine's armour is capable of taking direct hits from 21st century artillery pieces without sustaining critical damage. It also performs many other functions than just protection, including hostile-environment life support, combat first aid, extra mobility, increased reflexes and enhanced strength. The armour is fully powered by a Power Pack attached to the back plate of the set of armour. The Power Pack serves as the power generator for the armour, as well as the housing for emergency power generators. Additionally, field officers or specialist ranks have access to special wargear such as protective force fields, jump packs, active camouflage cloaks, powered melee weaponry, and other uncommon or rare war relics.
A Marine recruit must pass their Chapter's rigorous tests and have centuries of battle experience in order to earn the right to wear the different armour suits and associated weaponry in their Chapter's inventory. These include non-powered Scout Armour (for new recruits to prove themselves), Power Armour (the most common type among rank-and-file, standard for Tactical, Devastator, and Assault Marines), Centurions (an exosuit that fits on existing Power Armour, enhancing Assault or Devastator capabilities), and Terminator Armour (formally Tactical Dreadnought Armour), with stronger armor and heavier weaponry which is often built-in, but these suits are very rare and usually only for the First Company veterans. Customized and modified Power Armour is known as Artificer Armour, and these are extremely rare and preserved after the death of the original wearer, being reserved for Marines who are heroes and/or of highest ranks. The Dreadnought, often confused as an extra-large fighting suit or robot, is actually a powerful cyborg battle walker with a mortally wounded Marine entombed permanently inside the sarcophagus.[4] Recently introduced are the Primaris Space Marines, with their new Mk X armour being a more potent variant of the common Power Armor suits used by most Space Marines.
In-universe origins and history[edit]
Roughly 28,000 years in the future, the Emperor of Mankind creates twenty genetically engineered superhumans called 'Primarchs'. Demigod-like giants, their genomes were based on the Emperor's own genome; making them, in a way, his sons. The Emperor then creates the Space Marines for his armies. Just as the Primarchs are the genetic sons of the Emperor, the Space Marines are the genetic sons of their Primarch. There were twenty Space Marine Legions, one for each Primarch, who became the commander of his respective Legion.
The Emperor uses the Space Marine Legions to conquer the scattered human worlds of the galaxy, uniting them under the Imperium of Man in the Great Crusade. Over time, two Primarchs would disappear from Imperial records while others would have difficulties with their father and each other. As the campaign drew to a close, nine Primarchs and their Legions convert to the worship of the evil Chaos Gods, rebelling against the Emperor and sparking a galaxy-wide civil war known as the Horus Heresy. During the final hours of the war, Horus Lupercal, the Emperor's favourite Primarch-turned traitor, and the Emperor fight each other in a duel. Horus is killed, but the Emperor himself is so badly injured, he is placed on permanent life support.
As the Imperium is rebuilt, the Space Marine Legions are split up into Chapters so as to make another mass rebellion less likely. The remaining loyalist Primarchs either die or disappear over the next few centuries.
Creation of a Space Marine[edit]
Recruits are chosen from the best and most loyal among humanity. However, they must be adolescent males as deviating age or sex will result in guaranteed death if the subject in question has physical or mental augmentation attempted. Popular recruits for a Space Marine Chapter may include anything from tribal humans on a feral world, to underhive gangers, to normal hive city denizens, but have to be purely unmutated humans and fanatically loyal to their race.
The potential recruit is first subjected to testing, including tissue compatibility tests and psychological screening. Relatively few get past this initial selection process. Those that do pass are termed Neophytes, and the process continues with the surgery, indoctrination, conditioning, and training that will make them Space Marines. Those that survive but fail surgery or screening are either retained as Chapter Serfs or mechanically augmented and turned into semi-sentient Servitors to serve the Chapter, mainly under the command of Adeptus Mechanicus aligned Tech Marines of the Chapter who perform most tasks involving creation or maintenance of technology.
The surgical process takes a great deal of time and pain, sometimes even being lethal. The different stages of implantation must occur in a precise order at different times of development, lengthening the process to a significant degree. First, the recruit receives gene-seed implants, along with chemotherapy, hypnotherapy, and training necessary for allowing the functioning and development of the implanted organs. The implants transform their bodies and minds to give them near-superhuman abilities, with 19 special organs found in Space Marines and an extra 3 in their Primaris brothers.
Some notable abilities and attributes of a Space Marine include:
- Greatly enhanced strength - Allowing them to overpower even a gargantuan Ork nob in physical prowess.
- Greatly enhanced speed - Allows them to move much quicker across and around the battlefield than regular soldiers.
- Unnaturally quick reaction times - Grants them microsecond reflexes, important in battle to let them fight hand-to-hand with fast aliens like the Eldar.
- Much-increased physical durability - to last longer physically in battle or hostile conditions like the vacuum of space.
- Enhanced senses - biological improvements allows a space marine to have sharper senses of hearing, smell, and sight as well as having natural night-vision.
- Enhanced metabolic processes - enabling them to fight with minimal rest, clot wounds in seconds, or enter a self-healing coma.
- Increased survivability - A secondary heart and third lung increases oxygen absorption, filters toxins, and take over if the primary organs are destroyed.
- Improved digestive system - enables ingestion of dangerous substances like raw and toxic alien flesh, absorption of their prey's genetic memories, and the ability to spit blinding, corrosive acid.
- A closed gland (Progenium) - harvested by Apothecary Marines at death for new gene-seed spores to create new Space Marines.
Intense indoctrination and conditioning strengthens the recruit's resolve and increases mental capabilities, honing them into dedicated, merciless warriors that become fiercely loyal to the Emperor. Slightly prior to the completion of their implantations, they become Scout Marines, light and mobile forces charged with reconnaissance and infiltration. After more general training and the completion of their augmentations, they join the Chapter as full 'Battle-Brothers' and earn the right to full use of their iconic Power Armour and Boltgun.
Organisation[edit]
Space Marines are organised into Chapters, autonomous armies which retain their own heraldry, fleet and distinct identity. Chapters typically contain about a thousand Space Marines plus an unspecific number of Initiates, support staff, and Adeptus Mechanicus maintenance units. The majority of Chapters follow the organizational structure detailed in the fictional version of the Codex Adeptus Astartes. Each Chapter is arranged into ten Companies of one hundred marines each, led by a captain. The First Company of a Chapter is usually composed of veterans, privileged with suits of Terminator Armour, and the Tenth Company is almost always formed by newly recruited marines serving as Scouts. The Second to Fifth are the Battle Companies, typically consisting of six Tactical Squads, two Assault Squads, and two Devastator Squads. The Sixth to Ninth are Reserve Companies; Sixth and Seventh contain all Tactical Squads, while Eighth are entirely Assault and Ninth are all Devastator.
Typical Power Armour-equipped squads consist of nine marines and a sergeant; these are Tactical (all-around capabilities), Devastator (heavy weaponry), and Assault Squads (close support and melee). Terminators and Scouts usually operate as five-man squads.
There are several Chapters which have numbers exceeding one thousand Space Marines, though even with their larger-than-normal troop count, those Chapters' numbers pale in comparison to the original Astartes Legions, the latter often having numbers reaching tens of thousands (at its peak during the great crusade, the Ultramarines legion reached up to 250,000 legionares, before 1/5 were wiped out at Calth by the Word Bearers).
Each Chapter is a fully integrated, developed and very heavily equipped military unit, possessing incredible resources for rapid mobilisation and firepower. This includes a space-faring fleet of battle barges (equivalent to other faction's battleships) and strike cruisers. Compared to the manpower-intensive warships of the Imperial Navy, the Space Marine Fleet's heavily automated vessels are designed particularly for transport and planetary assault, deploying troops via Drop Pods or teleportation (Space Marine Terminators), while their hangars carry numerous craft including space/atmospheric transports (Thunderhawk Gunships and Stormraven Gunships, both of which are also capable of aerial attack), and atmospheric strike craft (Stormhawk Interceptor, Stormtalon Gunship). Space Marines operate wide range of armoured fighting vehicles, including armoured fighting vehicles (Predator Destructor and Annihilator, Vindicator, Whirlwind) and transports (Rhino, Razorback), most of which emphasis mobility over armour protection (in contrast to the Imperial Guard), although the Marines' Land Raider tank/transport is among the Imperium's best-protected of that type due to its thick all-around armor. Fast attack and recon elements utilise motorbikes and land speeders. A Chapter's main headquarters is its 'Fortress-Monastery' which is a citadel located on their homeworld, although some Chapters are fleet-based as they are headquartered on a battle barge instead of a planet. Each Chapter also owns and controls one or more planets from which they draw material resources and recruits.
Each Chapter is led by a Chapter Master. Chapter Masters rank among the Imperium's elite, and have the authority to order the annihilation of a planet's entire population (Exterminatus).
Each Chapter is almost completely autonomous. No higher authority commands all Space Marines, not even the Inquisition or the High Lords of Terra. Instead, they retain a degree of autonomy from all outside forces save for the Emperor's will. Nonetheless, any Chapter may be subject to censure or even excommunication by the Inquisition should it waver in its duty to defend the Imperium or should it join Chaos and serve the Chaos Gods.
Notable Chapters[edit]
The Ultramarines are the prototypical Space Marine Chapter, and follow the template laid out in the principal rulebook on Space Marines. The Imperial Fists are the other Chapter that adheres to the doctrines of the Codex Astartes as strictly as the Ultramarines. Other Chapters follow the Codex Astartes closely with some variations; for instance the Dark Angels 2nd Company (Ravenwing) is for fast attack (land speeders and bikes) while the 1st Company (Deathwing) consists of all Terminators (other Chapters' first companies have a mix of Terminators as well as Veterans in Power Armor). At the opposite extreme are the Space Wolves who have the most unorthodox organization.
Many other Chapters follow variant practices reflected in their game rules. For instance, the Salamanders specialise in close-ranged firefights and flame weaponry, the Black Templars eschew psykers, the Blood Angels favor melee combat, and the White Scars favour hit-and-run assault tactics with mounted troops (bikes and land speeders) while eschewing Dreadnoughts and Devastator Squads.
There are two known specialist chapters in the Imperium: The Grey Knights and the Deathwatch. The Grey Knights are a Chapter formed in secret to specifically hunt daemons from every shade of the Chaos spectrum. Each battle-brother is a sanctioned psyker who is adept at using Force Weapons, and they possess different tactics, training, and resources compared to typical Astartes. Similarly, the Deathwatch is a Chapter who specialise in hunting alien threats such as the Orks, Aeldari, or T'au. Unlike other Chapters, the Deathwatch is composed entirely of veteran marines seconded from other Chapters. This is typically welcomed as the specialist training whilst serving the Deathwatch is beneficial to the Chapter when the Battle-Brother returns to them. The Grey Knights and Deathwatch work closely with the Inquisition, acting as the Chambers Militant of the Ordo Malleus and Ordo Xenos respectively and act under their authority. Despite the Chamber Militant status, however, both chapters retain a significant degree of autonomy from the Inquisition.
Videogame appearances[edit]
Space Marines are the most common protagonists in Warhammer 40,000 related videogames. They have appeared in the following titles:
- Space Crusade (MS-DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC) (1992)
- Space Hulk (MS-DOS 3.3 or higher, Amiga, PC-98) (1993) (Terminator-armoured Space Marines).
- Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels (PC, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, 3DO) (1996) (sequel to Space Hulk).
- Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000 (Microsoft Windows) (1997).
- Chaos Gate (Microsoft Windows) (1998).
- Rites of War (Microsoft Windows) (1999).
- Fire Warrior (PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows) (2003).
- Dawn of War (2004) and its expansion packs Winter Assault (2005), Dark Crusade (2006), and Soulstorm (2008).
- Squad Command (2007).
- Dawn of War II (2009) and its expansion packs Chaos Rising (2010) and Retribution (2011).
- Space Marine (PC, Xbox 360 and PS3) (2011).
- Kill Team (2011).
- Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon (PC, iPad) (2014)
- The Horus Heresy: Drop Assault (iOS, Android, and Amazon devices)
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf (Android, iOS) (2014)
- Warhammer 40,000: Storm of Vengeance (Android) (2014)
- Warhammer 40,000: Carnage (Android, iOS) (2014)
- Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade (Android, iOS) (2015)
- Battlefleet Gothic: Armada (PC) (2016)
- Warhammer 40,000: Regicide (PC, Android, iOS) (2016)
- Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade (2016).
- Space Hulk: Deathwing (PC) (2016)
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III (PC) (2017)
- Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor Martyr (PC, Mac, PS4 and Xbox One) (2017)
- Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War (PC) (2018)
- Space Hulk: Tactics (PC, PS4 and Xbox One) (2018)
- Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 (PC) (2019)
Films[edit]
- Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (2010).
Books[edit]
Space Marines are featured in numerous Science-fantasy novels, predominantly published by Black Library, a division of Games Workshop.
Trademark controversy[edit]
In December 2012, Games Workshop claimed that any use of the phrase 'Space Marine' on content other than their own infringed on their trademark of the term and requested that online retailer Amazon remove the e-bookSpots the Space Marine by M.C.A. Hogarth.[5] The row received a lot of publicity during February 2013, with authors such as Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, and John Scalzi supporting Hogarth. Amazon restored the e-book for sale.[6][7]
See Also[edit]
Brotherhood of Steel, a similar organisation of monks in power armor tasked with retrieving lost technology on a post-apocalypticearth.
References[edit]
- ^Owen Duffy (11 December 2015). 'Blood, dice and darkness: how Warhammer defined gaming for a generation'. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016.
- ^http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landingArmy.jsp?catId=cat440176a&rootCatGameStyle=wh40k
- ^http://screammonkey.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/warhammer-40k-choosing-an-army/
- ^'Forge World - Tau Battlesuits and Drones'. Web.archive.org. 2013-11-23. Archived from the original on November 23, 2013. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
- ^Barnett, David (7 February 2013). 'Superheroes, space marines and lawyers get into trademark fight'. The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
- ^'Row blows up over ownership of 'space marine' term'. BBC News. London. 8 February 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
- ^https://www.amazon.com/Spots-Space-Marine-Defense-ebook/dp/B006MGJYOE
Bibliography[edit]
- Chambers, Andy (1998). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Space Marines. Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN1-869893-28-X.
- Haines, Pete; McNeill, Graham (2004). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Space Marines (4th ed.). Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN1-84154-526-0.
- Johnson, Jervis (2004). Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN978-1-84154-506-6.
- Priestly, Rick, Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, Games Workshop, Nottingham, 1987, ISBN1-869893-23-9
- Warhammer 40,000 5th edition rule book, Games Workshop, Nottingham 2008
- Priestly, Rick (February 1988). 'Chapter Approved: The Origin of the Legiones Astartes'. White Dwarf. Nottingham, UK: Games Workshop (98): 12–17.
| Manufacturer(s) | Milton Bradley and Games Workshop |
|---|---|
| Designer(s) | Steven Baker |
| Illustrator(s) | Jim Burns and David Sque |
| Publisher(s) | Milton Bradley |
| Years active | 1990 |
| Players | 2 to 4 |
| Random chance | Dice |
Space Crusade is an adventure board game produced by Milton Bradley together with Games Workshop and was first made in 1990. It was produced in the UK and available in some other countries including Finland, Ireland, France, Spain, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand. In Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, it is known as Star Quest.
It is a sister game to HeroQuest, which was also produced by Milton Bradley and Games Workshop. It uses many of the concepts of the Games Workshop's Space Hulk and Warhammer 40,000 games, but at a much simpler level of game play.
The game was designed by Steven Baker. The original box artwork was by Jim Burns, and the later edition had a cover by David Sque.[1]
Gameplay[edit]
The game is designed to be played with 2 to 4 players, taking turns until one wins. One player takes the role of the aliens, controlling all the aliens and monsters on the space hulk, which were a mixture of Chaos, Orks, Genestealers and other aliens from Warhammer 40,000. The alien player takes on a significantly reduced role compared with that of a Game Master in traditional role-playing games, with its sole role being to stop the marine players from accomplishing their missions.
The other players are marine players, and each controls a squad of 5 Space Marines in standard power armour, one of whom is a Commander. Each squad is further equipped with order commands as well as equipment cards. Marines can be armed with different weapons: light weapons allow marines to move faster at the cost of reduced firepower. Heavy weapons operate in special ways, such as being able to hit all units in a horizontal line, or attacking multiple targets.
The blue squad represents the Ultramarines, the red squad represents the Blood Angels, and the yellow squad represents the Imperial Fists. All three are founding chapters of the Space Marines, and the chapter can be recognized by the insignia on the slider board, and accurately represents the standard colors of the Warhammer 40,000 versions. Each of the chapters are identical, although the equipment cards for the Blood Angels are specialised in close combat, and the Imperial Fists in use of ranged heavy weapons.
Close range combat rules are enforced when two units engaging are next to each other; the controlling player of the two units in combat roll whatever number of dice allowed for that unit, and the highest wins. Otherwise, ranged combat rules are followed so long as there is line of sight between the two squares that each unit is occupying: the firing player rolls dice for the weapon being fired, and if the die total is above the armour value of the target, it is dealt hit points.
The squad-based system gives each player greater access for strategy and planning. Most of the game is careful calculations of avoiding line of sight, and rushing to attack either from around the corridor, through open doors, or close in with close combat. The mission based system sometimes allows a player to sacrifice units to score points in order to win.
The marine players have the advantage of heavy weapons, special equipment and high armour point values due to their power armour, while the alien player has the advantage of large numbers of pieces and random 'Alien Event' cards which may be detrimental to his opponents. The marine Commanders have multiple Hit Points and special weapons, making them harder to kill.
Each game consists of the marine players receiving their primary mission, docking and entering the space hulk (and later dreadnought factories), completing their mission before the other marine players, and returning their team back to the docking claw. Points are scored for units killed and missions completed, deducted for units lost. Players with sufficient points at the end of the game (including the Alien Player) can be promoted to the next rank, which gives them access to additional order or equipments for the subsequent games.
German Edition[edit]
The German version of the game was published under the name StarQuest to tie-in with Hero-Quest, which, at that time, was very popular amongst German children.
The translation tones down most of the violent game elements: The aliens are 'chaos robots', not living creatures. A player does not kill a robot, the robot is merely removed from this dimension or gets caught by the effects of the weapons and is not harmed at all. Although for example the 'Assault Cannon' can quite easily be recognized as a type of machine gun, in the German version it is called 'Zero Time Gun' and its effect is explained as 'time bubbles' slowing down the enemy.
Box contents[edit]
Space Crusade had a large number of components. The list below is included as both a reference and as an indication of quite how comprehensive the game was.
- 50 figures
- 3 Marine Commanders- 12 Space Marines, 8 Orks, 14 Gretchin,- 3 Genestealers- 1 Chaos Marine Commander,- 4 Chaos Space Marines, 4 Androids and- 1 Dreadnought
- 64 Playing Cards
- Three sets of 12 Chapter cards and 28 Alien event cards
- 32 blip tokens
- 12 rank badges
- 6 honour badges
- 1 Alien control panel
- 24 doors
- 6 combat dice
- 3 marine reference charts
- 32 reinforcement counters
- 1 primary mission token
- 1 secondary mission token
- 4 marks of Chaos
- 4 piece gameboard with walls
- 3 marine landing docks with airlocks (extra board pieces where the space marines start)
- 3 Commander Scanners with Slides
- Rule book
- 24 page Mission Manual
- Advanced rules book
Expansion games and sequels[edit]
Eldar Attack[edit]
A boxed expansion set that introduced Eldar with special abilities including psychic powers.
This expansion pack allowed one extra player to control the Eldar miniatures, thus allowing the game to be played by 2-5 people.
Mission Dreadnought[edit]
A boxed expansion set.
This expansion pack gives the marine player access to additional space marine miniatures, boosting the squad to 6 space marines and the commander. Space marines may carry extra heavy weapons or the tarantula mobile turret.
The alien player gains extra heavy dreadnoughts, which are extremely powerful and capable of wiping out an entire squad. The last mission in the additional mission book allows the alien player to continuously construct additional dreadnoughts for more firepower from the dreadnought factory board.
The additional bulkhead doors and corridor tiles allow players to build more interesting board constructions, whereas the initial game is quite limited to either the square 2x2 mode or the long 4x1 mode.
White Dwarf[edit]
Two articles about Space Crusade were published in White Dwarf: one for using Terminators, Space Marine Scouts, Ork Mobs, Tyranids and Genestealer Hybrids (White Dwarf 134, 1991), allowing players to use Warhammer 40,000 miniatures, and one campaign called 'Renegade' (White Dwarf 145, 1992).
Advanced Space Crusade[edit]
Advanced Space Crusade was a modular board game published in 1990 by Games Workshop. The premise of the game is that a number of Space Marine scout squads are boarding a Tyranid ship in order to sabotage its delicate internal 'organs'. The game is superficially similar to Space Hulk in that it uses 28 mm plastic Citadel Miniatures as play pieces, uses modular board pieces to represent the innards of the Hive ship, and has one player controlling the Marines while the other controls waves of Tyranids, but has no greater relationship to Space Crusade than any other game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Without the license from Milton Bradley, many of the components of Advanced Space Crusade were released in 1993's Tyranid Attack, a substantially different game.
Video game[edit]
Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd. released the Space Crusadevideo game version of the game in early 1992. It was available on Atari ST, IBM PC (MS-DOS), Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad and later received an expansion, The Voyage Beyond. It is considered a faithful conversion of the boardgame, with a board that could be viewed in 2D or isometric projection views (Barker, 1992). The ZX Spectrum version was voted number 24 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time.[2]
Dreadnought Space Marines
Reviews[edit]
- Challenge #56 (1991) - Advanced Space Crusade
References[edit]
- Barker, Linda (March 1992). 'Space Crusade'. Your Sinclair (75). Archived from the original on 2006-01-05.
- '(title unknown)'. White Dwarf: UK Edition (134). February 1991. ISSN0265-8712.
- 'Renegade'. White Dwarf: UK Edition (145). January 1992. ISSN0265-8712.
- ^Sque, David. 'David Sque Illustrations — Board Games'.
- ^'Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time'. Your Sinclair. September 1993.
Space Marine Dreadnought 40k
External links[edit]
- Space Crusade at BoardGameGeek
- Starquest new resources for Space Crusade
Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts Gameplay